Ed Smith, former head of the City of Birmingham, Toronto and Gothenburg Orchestras, has a bone to pick with conductors. They are very quick to milk applause for every part of the orchestra, he says, except the main body of strings. A rethink is needed, says Ed. 

Maestros, read carefully and respond. 

 

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When I was Orchestra Manager of the Liverpool Philharmonic in the 1970’s, second or third rate conductors, desperately anxious for a re-invitation, would single out sections or individual players for special acknowledgement at the end of a performance. They no doubt thought that wind and brass players were more “important” and had greater influence on the conductor engaging process than the strings. We all recognised this ingratiating tactic and treated it with the amusement and disdain it deserved. And they were usually never seen again!

But now, they nearly all do it!

Most conductors – including many of the great ones – go through the silly ritual of bringing individual players and sections to their feet for special attention – sometimes even at the end of a single piece. And the string players are, of course, always the last to be acknowledged.

It’s a really quite surprising display of insensitivity and I can’t understand why it’s become so widespread. Of course conductors should get the cellist up after a Brahms Second Piano Concerto or the cor anglais after a Swan of Tuonela or the trombone after a Shostakovich Fourth Symphony and other players where really significant solos have featured. And an especially well playing wind section in a Mozart Piano Concerto might be worthy of separate acknowledgement. But otherwise the orchestra is an orchestra – a group of up to 100 + musicians who play together as one body. It’s not a collection of individual and separate groups of woodwind, brass, percussion and strings.

I believe it should be acknowledged and applauded collectively and equally as such. How insulting it must be for those 60 odd string players (who, incidentally, will have probably put in significantly more graft in terms of rehearsal time) to have to sit and tap their stands enthusiastically whilst their colleagues are bidden to rise (often reluctantly and with some embarrassment) to receive special adulation. Of course, they themselves are not going to give voice to any frustration. That would be churlish. But I’d be very surprised if beneath the surface, whilst applauding their colleagues, there is not at least a little sense of feeling undervalued. And what can the players and sections singled out do other than stand to accept their special applause as commanded by the conductor as gracefully as they can?

No, the only people who can put a stop to this are the conductors themselves ( or their managers). So those who are reading this, please reflect a little on just how upsetting it may be for all their players to perpetuate this discriminatory practice.

Am I being curmudgeonly? Well, I don’t think so – I’m just articulating what I think needs to be said on behalf of those who are unable to. It’s a bit like the devaluation of the standing ovation which has now become so commonplace to mean nothing………..but that’s a separate gripe!

Edward Smith

 

 

Our ex-BBC colleague Sally-Anne Thomas was singing cheerily last night in the Church of St-Martin-in-the Fields on Trafalgar Square when the world and its woes intruded on the festive season. Here’s her report:

 

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Peaceful carol concert at St Martin’s-in-the Fields. First half disrupted by sound of sobbing — turns out someone’s been taken ill. The announcement comes, ‘Is there a Doctor in the…?’ Speaker doesn’t know what to say. ‘House?’, ‘audience?’ ‘congregation?’

Programme hastily rearranged. Second half is marked by sounds of police cars and ambulances racing through Trafalgar Square.

Towards the end, a missile is hurled through one of the windows on the St Martin’s Lane side, showering us with debris. It’s a china mug, which shatters. My cheek is lightly scratched by shrapnel. Rest of the church go on singing a comedy version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.

In the pub afterwards we discover about the ceiling collapse at the Apollo nearby. Two people try to steal our programme. For a carol concert? My companion tells me that three men lined up at the urinals in the gents all burst into harmonic song when he was there. On the way home I have to run the gamut of lots of tiny black mice on the platform at Charing Cross tube. A drunk couple take each other’s shoes off on the train. Back at the house, a moody looking fox is lurking in the front garden. Love living in London…

 

No reason given, but from tomorrow the Talinn Philharmonic is headless. Marko Lõhmus faces a jobless Christmas.

UPDATE: he has gone on radio to say that he submitted his resignation as he could not see a way forward in what he called ‘current conditions’

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Interesting statements from the superstar in the WSJ:

There are 50 million kids learning piano now in China. If you asked me 10 years ago, I’d be worried. Back then, the parents were so pushy. Now, it’s much better. Back then, it was four grandparents, mother and father—everything is on one child.

Are Chinese parents really serious about practicing?

People think they’re serious, but they’re not that serious anymore. Most of the kids want to learn. They can end up like pop star Jay Chou or Lady Gaga or Alicia Keys or Herbie Hancock. A lot of my classmates in Juilliard were Asian, but it’s not like today. The head of Juilliard piano has 25 students—23 are Chinese. Some are American-Chinese. But it’s incredible. The thing is, when Asian students are practicing hard, it makes the American students practice hard.

Discuss.

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Eric “Guitar” Davis, 41, son of Bobby “Top Hat” Davis, was found shot dead at the wheel of his car, close to another murder scene. Details here.

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Karina Canellakis has been appointed assistant conductor with the Dallas Symphony, starting next year. She graduated from Alan Gilbert’s class at Juilliard and was formerly guest concertmaster at the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, where ex-Dallas chief Andrew Litton is music director. More career details here.

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photo (c) Masataka Suemitsu

Lorenzo Viotti was last night named the winner of the 11th Cadaques conducting competition. A French citizen, Viotti is the son of the well-liked opera conductor Marcello Viotti, who died in 2005, aged 50. He is also the godson of the conductor Bertrand de Billy.

The competition, which boasts Gianandrea Noseda and Vasily Petrenko among past winners, has been dogged throughout the finals by dissent. Hardly any women candidates got past initial selection and rumours reached us from an early stage that Viotti was the favourite. Orchestra members and two jury members showed sour facial expressions when the semi-finalists were announced, suggesting that better candidates had been unfairly eliminated.

We wish M Viotti well in his future career.

Cadaques needs to apply the rules in future with greater rigour if it is to regain credit as an even-handed competition.

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Part of the roof of London’s Apollo Theatre came down during a performance of The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime.

The emergency services said more than 80 people have been injured. The theatre, built in 1901, accommodates 775 seated on four levels. Earlier reports said a balcony had fallen. Here’s the latest BBC report.

 

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Maria Lidka, a Hitler refugee who has died at the age of 99, was a formidable figure in British musical life, performing concertos with all the main orchestras and devoting herself to the works of young composers. When her pianist friend Margaret Kitchen died, the Telegraph wrote: ‘For many years it seemed as if Maria Lidka gave all the important violin premières, and Margaret Kitchin all the piano ones.’

A pupil of Max Rostal in Berlin, Maria followed her teacher to London in 1934. Interned in 1940 as an enemy alien, she formed a Czech Trio with Walter Süsskind (piano) and Karel Horitz (cello). She played often with Walter Goehr, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett, playing the solo role in the world premiere of his Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.

Obituary here (auf Deutsch).

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We have received news of the death of Brian Pollard, one of the first British players to win a principal seat in a world-ranked orchestra. Brian was principal bassoon in the Concertgebouworkest. When I met him in 1983, he was one of the hardest-working members of the most conscientious ensemble I had ever come across, an orchestra in which players arrived an hour early for rehearsal, to be ready for the first downbeat. Brian was often the first in his seat.

Several bassoonists have described him as the beacon by which they led their lives.

Sympathies to his family and colleagues.

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photo: Maarten Vonk

The Antaeus Company of North Hollywood need cash to buy new costumes. So they did what so many classical performers have done since time immemorial: they stripped off. Story from the LA Times. Really cool video. Cold, even.

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